Why Verizon Went Open & What It Means — The about-face taken by Verizon Wireless today when it said it will open up its network and platform is, at first blush, a good thing for consumers and developers. But I just got off the company's conference call, and there are certain details that have left me with eyebrows raised.

My Our Maps — The My Maps feature of Google Maps lets people create maps to share their hobbies and expertise with the world. For example, a surfing enthusiast could map out their favorite surf spots or a surfing club could plot all the best beaches in Southern California.

Explore new terrain — We've noticed that many people build customized maps using My Maps and KML to help others see the planet in a new light. We've seen everything from maps of hiking trails with pictures taken along the way to a guide to the world's mountain peaks.

Cyber Monday into Resolution Tuesday — By now you have probably heard about the problems that many of our small business merchant customers experienced yesterday. Unfortunately, the system outage occurred at one of the worst possible times, and despite our concerted efforts to fix the problem …

Brightcove Gives Up on Consumer Video — Brightcove has never really been more than a half-hearted consumer video play, opting instead to function as a content distribution network for a large number of high profile media partners. Today Brightcove informed members of its Brightcove.TV site …

Hacker defaces temples to OS X — A self-described Apple user, presumably fed up with the smug superiority of "Mac," the hipster mascot featured in the ubiquitous "Get a Mac" commercials, is targeting OS X enthusiast sites with defacements that accuse them of excessive fanboyism.